Compare and Contrast:25th Hour & Do the Right Thing. For this essay, I have watched and viewed both the films Do the Right Thing and 25th Hour by director Spike Lee. While on the surface, the subject matter and bulk of the films are very different,certain trademarks of Lee shine through in both films,thus binding them together and giving a sense of the style Spike Lee has in all of his films.
Basically speaking, one may be forgiven for not realizing Do the Right Thing and 25th Hour are both Spike Lee films. They’re very different and seemingly portray two entirely different styles of storytelling. In Do the Right Thing, we see Lee tackle racial tensions and racism itself,all in the course of a single,boiling hot summer day, whereas in 25th Hour we see the final days of a man, Montgomery Brogan, as he mentally prepares himself to leave all he has behind in one final day of freedom before heading off to jail. These are very plainly two different plotlines,as 25th Hour is entirely removed from the racial tension themes of Do the Right
Thing, and even our main character in 25th Hour is seen dating a black Hispanic woman, Naturelle Riviera, who happens to be the only notable person of color in the film. To those who hadn’t fully unpacked and reviewed both films mentally, one can find almost no similarities in the films with the exception of there director. Thankfully,looking closer one can find a few overarching themes that are able to successfully indicate that both films have earned their mark as being Lee’s works.
The most simple thing in common to notice in both 25th Hour and Do the Right Thing is the director’s use of color. Occasionally in shots, we’ll see a complete saturation of the current scene in a certain color,most commonly red, which we see most notably in Do the Right Thing when the three old men (Sweet Dick Willie and his friends) are standing in front of a bright red wall. Red is typically used to indicate boiling tensions or passions (tensions, in this case).
In 25th Hour,however, while we do see several shots of complete saturation in the club scenes, we also see the director utilise lack of color. According to cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, this is to make the city seem as it were covered in ash,relating to its setting in post-September 11th New York. The other thing people may notice is use of allusion. In Do the Right Thing, we see Radio Raheem make an updated version of the “Love and Hate” speech made originally in “Night of the Hunter”, which is the primary allusion of that film, while in 25th Hour, our protagonist Montgomery Brogan has a large,almost oversized poster of the film “Cool Hand Luke”, meant to give insight into the character.
Lastly, we see an allusion to Catcher in the Rye in both films, where in Do the Right Thing we see characters of different ethnicities giving disdainful speeches about other ethnicities, while in 25th Hour we see Montgomery Brogan’s reflection give disdainful speeches about the various groups seen around New York City.
Overall,to the average person, one may find little in common between the films 25th Hour and Do the Right Thing. Many would likely not even guess they were from the same director. Both feature vastly different subject matter and different protagonists that make it hard to connect the two. For those who dig a bit further, however,connections may be found everywhere from anything to allusions, to camera angles, or even in the colors.
